Archive for the 'Elijah Brown' Tag Under 'Lakers' Category

Lakers fans understandably are angry and frustrated with the team's poor play that has resulted in a 1-4 start. They fill the airwaves with their rants and social media with their comments. Twitter has not been kind to Mike Brown during the stretch, with many calling for his ouster after every game.

But some fans' ire Wednesday was directed at Brown's son, Elijah, who plays basketball at Mater Dei High. The Lakers coach, though, had no idea his son had received threats on Twitter despite having a friend monitor his son's account.

"That's the tough part about this business. To go after somebody's family or something like that is, in my opinion, just ridiculous. It's stupid, crazy, whatever you want to call it. They (family members) have nothing to do with what's going on right now."

Elijah Brown seemed unfazed by the comments, posting on Twitter that "Coaches fault when they lose but players glory when they win.. I'm not trippin well be straight!"

Brown's son Elijah is playing for Santa Ana Mater Dei High CIF-SS Division 1AA boys basketball finals against Long Beach Poly at 6:30 p.m. Pacific time Saturday night in Anaheim, and the Lakers' coach will be able to watch in person.

Elijah had to leave St. Edward High in Ohio to follow Mike to Southern California, and now Elijah is a junior guard at Mater Dei High in Santa Ana. He plays for the Monarchs, ranked No. 8 in the country by ESPN, and he is Rivals.com's No. 60 recruit in his national class.

Next season, as a senior, the Monarchs will be more Elijah's team -- which makes it all the sweeter that with Mike's help, Mater Dei has scheduled a road game at Elijah's old school, St. Edward, on Martin Luther King Day 2013 (Jan. 21).

The Lakers showed some interest in combo guard Delonte West during the recent free-agent period.

West eventually signed with Dallas, but new Lakers coach Mike Brown's appreciation for West's game was a big part of it. In fact, Brown likens older son Elijah's game on the court to West's -- with sweet lefty shooting and enough handle to play some point guard, plus the sort of defensive effort Brown appreciates.

Elijah used to hear a lot from kids around him in Cleveland about the Cavaliers not putting it all together around LeBron James when his dad coached there. These days, Elijah has heard most about why the Clippers seem to be rising and the Lakers have not.

"Does your dad still think they can beat the Clippers?" Elijah said he hears often. "Can they still win? They haven't done anything."

New Lakers coach Mike Brown was definitely listening when Vanessa Bryant was breaking down the ins and outs of Orange County for him.

Brown and his star player Kobe Bryant will be fellow Orange County residents. Brown is buying a house in Anaheim Hills -- and it's a lot of house at 9,500 square feet -- and will brave the commute from the intersection of the 91 and 55 freeways to El Segundo for practice and downtown Los Angeles for games.

According to Google Maps, that'll be 45 minutes to practice without traffic (but an hour and 20 minutes with traffic) and 43 minutes to Staples without traffic (but an hour and 40 minutes with traffic.)

Brown is sacrificing proximity to his Lakers work to be close to Santa Ana's Mater Dei High. That's where son Elijah will play basketball and son Cameron will play football; the Browns are also taking guardianship of Nirra Fields, who will live with them and be a girls' basketball standout for Mater Dei.

The Bryants live in Newport Coast -- about a half-hour from the Browns' home that is much further inland -- and Vanessa Bryant is from Huntington Beach. Anaheim Hills is an Orange County suburb with a lot of gated communities.

The relationship between the Brown family and Fields, who is from Quebec, grew out of meeting at amateur basketball programs; Brown's elder son Elijah plays basketball and will be a junior. He started at shooting guard for St. Edward in the Cleveland area last season and endured some heckling after his father was fired as Cavaliers coach.

His brother, freshman-to-be Cameron, plays football. Mike Brown helped out some as a football assistant coach for Cameron during the past year away from coaching in the NBA.